Re: Which motor to purchase – if any

[20mercman]

One thing to remember is that this board has a fair number of OMC fans here and their suggestion on the Javelin is understood. It was a very good motor. They are known for being good dependable power and look nice. That said, I would ask what do you want to do with the boat? As was already said, the Mercury at 50hp vs. the Javelin at 30hp will most likely be a faster motor as they are going to have 40% more horsepower. There are a great many Mercury experts that feel that the inline 4 cylinder motors were Mercury’s finest hour. I would think long and hard before I turned away from one of these. As you said that you are working on an early 60’s boat, then for me it would be a clear choice to at least check out the 60’s Mercury’s as they would be a better match for the boat. The one in your photo is likely a 1962 as it has thru-the-hub exhaust and 62 decals. (62 was first year of the hub exhaust) Go to Johnsoldmercurysite.com and talk to George Garland for information on these 4 cylinder Mercury Motors. Great site for the Mercury fans. What ever motor you get, you should plan to do a full restoration on it to make sure that everything is as it should be. The Mercury motors are not hard to work on in my opinion, but it is often what you have experience with.

Steve